where there was not one dead p. 285 SERMON XXII A Sermon Preached at the Temple Esther 4.16 Go and assemble all the Jews that are found in Shushan and fast ye for me and eat not nor drink in three days day nor night I also and my Maids will fast likewise and so I will go in to the King which is not according to the Law And if I perish I perish p. 298 SERMON XXIII A Sermon Preached at Lincolns-Inne Ascension-day 1622. Deut. 12.30 Take heed to thy self that thou be not snared by following them after they be destroyed from before thee and that thou inquire not after their gods saying How did these Nations serve their gods Even so will I do likewise p. 311 SERMON XXIV A Sermon Preached at Pauls Cross to the Lords of the Council and other Honorable Persons 24 Mart. 1616. It being the Anniversary of the Kings coming to the Crown and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland Prov. 22.11 He that loveth pureness of heart for the grace of his lips the King shall be his friend p. 322 SERMON XXV A Sermon Preached at the Spittle upon Easter-Monday 1622. 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ P. 357 SERMON XXVI Psal 68.20 And unto God the Lord belong the issues of Death from Death P. 397 A Lent-SERMON Preached at WHITE-HALL February 20. 1617. SERMON I. Serm. 1. Luc. 23.40 Fearest not thou God being under the same condemnation THe Text it self is a Christning-Sermon and a Funeral-Sermon and a Sermon at a Consecration and a Sermon at the Canonization of himself that makes it This Thief whose words they are is Baptized in his blood there 's his Christning He dyes in that profession there 's his Funeral His Diocess is his Cross and he takes care of his soul who is crucified with him and to him he is a Bishop there 's his Consecration and he is translated to heaven there 's his Canonization We have sometimes mention in Moses his book of Exodus according to the Romane Translation Operis Plumarii of a kind of subtle and various workmanship imployed upon the Tabernacle for which it is hard to finde a proper word now we translate it sometimes Embroidery sometimes Needle-work sometimes otherwise It is evident enough that it was Opus variegatum a work compact of divers pieces curiously inlaid and varied for the making up of some figure some representation and likelyest to be that which in sumptuous buildings we use to call now Mosaick work for that very word originally signifies to vary to mingle to diversifie As the Tabernacle of God was so the Scriptures of God are of this Mosaick work The body of the Scriptures hath in it limbs taken from other bodies and in the word of God are the words of other men other authors inlaid inserted But this work is onely where the Holy Ghost is the Workman It is not for man to insert to inlay other words into the word of God It is a gross piece of Mosaick work to insert whole Apocryphal books into the Scriptures It is a sacrilegious defacing of this Mosaick work to take out of Moses Tables such a stone as the second Commandment and to take out of the Lords Prayer such a stone as is the foundation-stone the reason of the prayer Quia Tuum For thine is the kingdom c. It is a counterfeit piece of Mosaick work when having made up a body of their Canon-Law of the raggs and fragments torne from the body of the Fathers they attribute to every particular sentence in that book not that authority which that sentence had in that Father from whom it is taken but that authority which the Canonization as they call it of that sentence gives it by which Canonization and placing it in that book it is made equal to the word of God Thesaurus Catholicus It is a strange piece of Mosaick work when one of their greatest authors pretending to present a body of proofs for all controverted points from the Scriptures and Councels and Fathers for he makes no mention in his promise of the Mothers of the Church doth yet fill up that body with sentences from women and obtrude to us the Revelations of Brigid and of Katherine and such She-fathers as those But when the Holy Ghost is the workman in the true Scriptures we have a glorious sight of this Mosaick this various this mingled work where the words of the Serpent in seducing our first parents The words of Balaams Ass in instructing the rider himself The words of prophane Poets in the writings and use of the Apostle The words of Caiaphas prophesying that it was expedient that one should dye for all The words of the Divel himself Jesus I know and Paul I know And here in this text the words of a Thief executed for the breach of the Law do all concur to the making up of the Scriptures of the word of God Now though these words were not spoken at this time when we do but begin to celebrate by a poor and weak imitation the fasting of our Saviour Jesus Christ but were spoken at the day of the crucifying of the Lord of life and glory yet as I would be loath to think that you never fast but in Lent so I would be loath to think that you never fulfill the sufferings of Christ Jesus in your flesh but upon Goodfriday never meditate upon the passion but upon that day As the Church celebrates an Advent a preparation to the Incarnation of Christ to his coming in the flesh in humiliation so may this humiliation of ours in the text be an Advent a preparation to his Resurrection and coming in glory And as the whole life of Christ was a passion so should the whole life especially the humiliation of a Christian be a continual meditation upon that Christ began with some drops of blood in his infancy in his Circumcision though he drowned the sins of all mankinde in those several channels of Blood which the whips and nailes and spear cut out of his body in the day of his passion So though the effects of his passion be to be presented more fully to you at the day of his passion yet it is not unseasonable now to contemplate thus far the working of it upon this condemned wretch whose words this text is Division as to consider in them First the infallibility and the dispatch of the grace of God upon them whom his gracious purpose hath ordained to salvation how powerfully he works how instantly they obey This condemned person who had been a thief execrable amongst men and a blasphemer execrating God was suddainly a Convertite suddainly a Confessor suddainly a Martyr suddainly a Doctor to preach to others In a second consideration we shall see what doctrine he preaches not curiosities
Princes all the Homilies of our Fathers all the Body of Divinity is in these three Chapters in this one Sermon in the Mount Where as the Preacher concludes his Sermon with Exhortations to practice 7.24 whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them so he fortifies his Sermon with his own practice which is a blessed and a powerful method for as soon as he came out of the Pulpit 8.1 as soon as he came down from the Mount he cur'd the first Leper he saw and that without all vain-glory for he forbad him to tell any man of it Divisio Of this Noble Body of Divinity one fair Limb is in this Text Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Immediately before our blessed Saviour had forbidden us the laying up of Treasure in this world upon this Reason That here moths and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal There the reason is because the Money may be lost but here in our Text it is because the Man may be lost for where your Treasure is there your Heart will be also So that this is equivalent to that Mat. 16.26 What profit to gain the whole world and loose a mans own soul Our Text therefore stands as that Proverbial that Hieroglyphical Letter Pythagoras his Y that hath first a stalk a stem to fix it self and then spreads into two Beams The stem the stalk of this Letter this Y is in the first word of the Text that Particle of argumentation For Take heed where you place your Treasure for it concerns you much where your Heart be plac'd and where your Treasure is there will your Heart be also And then opens this Symbolical this Catechistical Letter this Y into two Horns two Beams two Branches one broader but on the left hand denoting the Treasures of this World the other narrower but on the right hand Treasure laid up for the World to come Be sure ye turn the right way for where your Treasure is there will your Heart be also Cor fixum First then We bind our selves to the stake to the stalk to the staff the stem of this Symbolical Letter and consider in it That firmness and fixation of the Heart which God requires God requires no unnatural things at mans hand Whatsoever God requires of man man may finde imprinted in his own nature written in his own heart This firmness then this fixation of the heart is natural to man Every man does set his heart upon something and Christ in this place does not so much call upon him that he would do so set his heart upon something as to be sure that he set it upon the right Object And yet truly even this first work to recollect our selves to recapitulate our selves to assemble and muster our selves and to bend our hearts intirely and intensly directly earnestly emphatically energetically upon something is by reason of the various fluctuation of our corrupt nature and the infinite multiplicity of Objects such a Work as man needs to be called upon and excited to do it Therefore is there no word in the Scriptures so often added to the heart as that of intireness Toto Corde Omni Corde Pleno Corde Do this with all thine heart with a whole heart with a full heart for whatsoever is indivisible is immoveable a Point because it cannot be divided cannot be moved the Centre the Poles God himself because he is indivisible is therefore immoveable And when the heart of man is knit up in such an intireness upon one Object as that it does not scatter nor sub-divide it self then and then onely is it fixed And that 's the happiness in which David fixes himself not in his Cor paratum My heart is prepared O God my heart is prepared for so it may be prepared even by God himself and yet scattered and subdivided by us But in his Cor fixum My heart is fixed Psal 57.7 O God my heart is fixed Awake my glory awake my Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early and praise thee O Lord among the people A Triumph that David return'd to more then once for he repeats the same words with the same pathetical earnestness again Psal 108.1 So that his Glory his Victory his Triumph his Peace his Acquiescence his All-sufficiency in himself consisted in this That his heart was fixed for this fixation of the heart argued and testified an intireness in it When God sayes Fili da mihi Cor My Son give me thy heart God means the whole man 1 Cor. 12.17 Though the Apostle say The eye is not the man nor the ear is not the man he does not say The heart is not the man the heart is the man the heart is all and Exod. 10.8 as Moses was not satisfied with that Commission that Pharaoh offered him That all the men might go to offer sacrifice but Moses would have all their young and all their old all their sons and all their daughters all their flocks and all their herds he would have all So when Gods sayes Fili da mihi Cor My Son give me thy heart God will not be satisfied with the eye if I contemplate him in his Works for that 's but the godliness of the natural man nor satisfied with the ear with hearing many Sermons for that 's but a new invention a new way of making Beads if as the Papist thinks all done if he have said so many Aves I think all done if I have heard so many Sermons But God requires the heart the whole man all the faculties of that man for onely that that is intire and indivisible is immovable and that that God calls for and we seek for in this stem of Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter is this immovableness this fixation of the heart And yet even against this though it be natural there are many impediments We shall reduce them to a few to three these three First there is Cor nullum a meer Heartlesness no Heart at all Incogitancy Inconsideration and then there is Cor Cor Cor duplex a double Heart a doubtful a distracted Heart which is not Incogitancy nor Inconsideration but Perplexity and Irresolution and lastly Cor vagum a wandring a way faring a weary Heart which is neither Inconsideration nor Irresolution but Inconstancie And this is a Trinity against our Unity three Enemies to that fixation and intireness of the Heart which God loves Inconsideration when we do not Debate Irresolution when we do not Determine Inconstancy when we do not Persevere and upon each of these be pleas'd to stop your Devotion a few minutes Cor nullum The first is Cor nullum no Heart at all Incogitancy Thoughtlesness An idle body is a disease in a State an idle soul is a monster in a man 2 Thes 3.10 That body that will not work must not eat but starve that soul that does not think not consider cannot be said
in contemplation of whom that service is done and that is done especially when by a holy and exemplar life we draw others to the love and obedience of the same Gospell which we professe for then have we declared this true and faithfull saying this Gospell to have been worthy of all acceptation when we have look'd upon it by our reason embraced it by our Faith and declared it by our good works and all these considerations arose out of that which at the beginning we called Radicem the Roote of this Gospell the Word the Scripture the Tree it self the Body of the Gospell that is The coming of Christ and the Reason of his coming To save Sinners And then the fruit of this Gospell that Humility by which the Apostle confesseth himselfe to be the greatest Sinner we reserve for another exercise Serm. 14. A Second SERMON Preached at Whitehall April 2. 1621. SERMON XIV 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest WE have considered heretofore that which appertained to the Roote and all the circumstances thereof That which belongs to the Tree it selfe what this acceptable Gospell is That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners and then that which appertains to the fruit of this Gospell the Humility of the Apostle in applying it to himselfe Quorum ego Of which Sinners I am the chiefest were reserved for this time In the first of these that which we call the Tree the Body of this Gospell there are three branches first an Advent A coming and secondly the Person that came and Lastly the worke for which he came And in the first of these we shall make these steps First that it is a new coming of a Person who was not here before at least not in that manner as he comes now venit He came And Secondly that this coming is in Act not only in Decree so he was come and slaine ab initio from all eternity in God's purpose of our Salvation nor come only in promise so he came wrapped up in the first promise of a Messiah in Paradise in that ipse conteret He shall bruise the Serpents head nor come only in the often renuing of that promise to Abraham in semine tuo In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed nor only in the ratification and refreshing of that promise to Judah Donec Silo Till Silo come and to David in Solio tuo The Scepter shall not depart nor as he came in the Prophets in I says virgo concipiet That he should come of a virgin nor in Michaeas Et tu Bethlem That he should come out of that Towne but this is a Historicall not a Propheticall an Actuall not a Promissary coming it is a coming already executed venit he came he is come And then Thirdly venit in mundum He came into the World into the whole World so that by his purpose first extends to all the Nations of the World and then it shall extend to thee in particular who art a part of this world He is come into the world and into thee From hence we shall descend to our second branch to the considerations of the person that comes and he is first Christus in which one name we find first his capacity to reconcile God and man because he is a mixt person uniting both in himself and we find also his Commission to work this Reconciliation because he is Christus an annointed person appointed by that unction to that purpose And thirdly we find him to be Jesus that is actually a Saviour that as we had first his capacity and his Commission in the name of Christ so we might have the execution of this Commission in the name of Jesus And then lastly in the last branch of this part we shall see the work it self Venit salvare He came to save It is not offerre to offer it to them whom he did intend it to but he came really and truly to save It was not to show a land of promise to Moyses then say there it is but thou shalt never come at it It was not to shew us salvation then say there it is in Baptism it is in Preaching and in the other Sacrament it is but soft there is a Decree of predestination against thee and thou shalt have none of it But venit salvare He came to save And whom Sinners Those who the more they ackowledg themselves to be so the nearer they are to this salvation First then for the Advent this comming of Christ Part 1. we have a Rule reasonable general in the school Missio in divinis est novo modo operatio Then is any person of the Trinity said to be sent or to come when they work in any place or in any person in another manner or measure then they did before yet that Rule doth not reach home to the expressing of all commings of the persons of the Trinity The second person came more pretentially then so more then in an extraordinary working and Energie and execution of his power if it be rightly apprehended by those Fathers who in many of those Angels which appear'd to the Patriarcks and whose service God us'd in delivering Israel out of Egypt and in giving them the Law in Sinai to be the son of God himself to have been present and many things to have been attributed to the Angels in those histories which were done by the son of God not only working but present in that place at that time So also the Holy Ghost came more presentially then so more then by an extraordinary extention of his power when he came presentially and personally in the Dove to seal Johns Baptism upon Christ But yet though those pretential commings of Christ as an Angel in the old Testament and this comming of the Holy Ghost in a Dove in the New were more then ordinary commings and more then extraordinary workings too yet they were all far short of this comming of the son of God in this Text for it could never be said properly in any of those cases That that or that Angel was the son of God the second person or that that Dove was the Holy Ghost or the third person of the Trinity but in this Advent which we have in hand here it is truly and properly said this man is God this son of Mary is the son of God this Carpenters son is that very God that made the world He came so to us as that he became us not only by a new and more powerful working in us but by assuming our nature upon himself It is a perplex't question in the School and truly the Balance in those of the middle age very even whether if Adam had not sinned the son of God had come into the world and taken our nature and our flesh upon him Out of the infinite testimonies of
and lose a mans own soul Our text therefore stands as that proverbial that Hieroglifical letter Pithagoras his y that hath first a stalk a stem to fix it self and then spreads into two beams The stem the stalk of this letter this y is in the first word of the text that particle of argumentation for take heed where you place your treasure for it concernes you much where your heart be placed and where your treasure is there your heart will be also and then opens this Symbolical this Catechistical letter this y into two hornes two beams two branches One broader but on the left hand denoting the treasures of this world the other narrower but on the right hand treasure laid up for the world co come be sure ye turn the right way for where your treasure is there will your heart be also First we bind our selves to the stake to the stalk to the staffe Cor fixum the stem of this Simbolical letter consider in it that firmness fixation of the heart which God requires God requires no unatural thing at mans hand whatsoever God requires of man man may find imprinted in his own nature written in his own heart This firmness then this fixation of the heart is natural to man every man does set his heart upon something and Christ in this place does not so much call upon him that he would do so set his heart upon something as to be sure he set it upon the right object and yet truly even this first work to recollect our selves to recapitulate our selves to assemble and muster our selves and to bend our hearts intirely and intensly directly earnestly emphatically energetically upon something is by reason of the various fluctuation of our corrupt nature and the infinite multiplicity of objects such a work as man needs to be called upon and excited to do it therefore is there no words in the Scripture so often added to the heart as that of Intireness Toto corde omni corde pleno corde do this withal thy heart with a whole heart with a full heart for whatsoever is indivisible is immoveable a Point because it cannot be denied cannot be moved the Center the Poles God himself because he is indivisible is therfore immoveable and when the heart of man is knit up in such an intirenes upon one object as that it does not flatter nor subdivide it self then and then only is it fixed And that 's the happiness in which David fixes himself not in his Cor paratim my heart is preparad O God my heart is prepared Psal 57 7. for so it may be prepared even by God himself and yet scattered and subdivided by us But in his Cor fixum My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed awake my glory awake my Psaltery and Harp I my self will awake early Psal 108 1. and praise thee O Lord among the people A triumph that David returned to more then once for he repeats the same words with the same pathetical earnestness again so that his glory his victory his triumph his peace his acquiescence his al-sufficiency in himself consisted in this that his heart was fixed for this fixation of the heart argued and testified an intireness in it when God saies sili da mihi Cor my Son give me thy heart God means the whole man 1 Cor. 12.17 though the Apostle saith The eye is not the man nor the ear is not the man he does not say the heart is not the man the heart is the man the heart is all And as Moses was not satisfied with that Commission that Pharaoh offered him Exod. 10 8. that all the men might go to offer Sacrifice but Moses would have all their young and all their old all their Sons and all their Daughters all their flocks and all their heards he would have all so when God saies Fili da mihi cor my Son give me thy heart God will not be satisfied with the eye if I contemplate him in his works for that 's but the godliness of the natural man nor satisfied with the ear with hearing many Sermons for that 's but a new invention a new way of making beads as if the Papist think all done if he have said so many Aves I think all done If I have heard so many Sermons But God requires the heart the whole man all the faculties of that man for only that that is entire and indivisible is immoveable and that that God cals for and we seek for in this stem of Pithagoras his Symbolical letter is this immoveableness this fixation of the heart and yet even against this though it be natural there are many impediments we shall reduce them to a few to three these three First there is Cor nullum a meer heartlesness no heart at all incogitancy inconsideration and then there is Cor cor Cor duplex a double heart a doubtful a distracted heart which is not incogitancy nor inconsideration but purplexity and irresolution and lastly Cor vagum a wandring a wayfaring a weary heart which is neither inconsideration nor irresolution but inconstancy and this is a trinity against our unity three enemies to that fixation and intireness of the heart which God loves inconsideration when we do not debate irresolution when we do not determine inconstancy when we do not persevere and upon each of these Cor nullum be pleased to stop your devotion a few minuts This first is Cor nullum no heart at all incogitancy thoughtlesness An idle body is a disease in a state an idle soul is a monster in a man That body that will not work must not eat 2 Thes 3.10 but starve that soul that does not think nor consider cannot be said to Actuate which is the proper operation of the Soul but to Evaporate not to work in the body but to breath and smoak through the body We have seen estates of private men wasted by inconsideration as well as by riot and a soul may perish by a thoughtlesness as well as by ill thoughts God takes it as ill to be slighted as to be injur'd and God is as much slighted in Corde nullo in our thoughtlesness and inconsideration as he is opposed and provoked in Corde maligno in a rebellious heart There is a good nullification of the heart a good bringing of the heart to nothing for the fire of Gods spirit may take hold of me and as the Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus Luk. 24. were affected my heart may burn within me when the Scriptures are opened that is when Gods Judgments are denounced against my sin and this heat may overcome my former frigidity and coldness and overcome my succeeding tepidity and lukewarmness and may bring my heart to a mollification to a tenderness as Job found it The Almighty hath troubled me and made my heart soft for there are hearts of clay as well as hearts of wax hearts whom
translate Treasury in all those places of Job and David and Isaiah which we mentioned before and in all other places He shall open that Treasury says that Prophet and bring forth the weapons not as before of Displeasure but in a far heavier word the weapons of his Indignation And in the Bowels and Treasury of his Mercy let me beseech you not to call the denouncing of Gods Indignation a Satyr of a Poet or an Invective of an Orator As Solomon says There is a time for all things there is a time for Consternation of Presumptuous Hearts as well as for Redintegration of Broken Hearts and the time for that is this time of Mortification which we enter into now Now therefore let me have leave to say That the Indignation of God is such a thing as a man would be affraid to think he can express it affraid to think he does know it for the knowledge of the Indignation of God implies the sense and feeling thereof all knowledge of that is experimental and that 's a woful way and a miserable acquisition and purchase of knowledge To re-collect Treasure is Provision for the future No worldly thing is so there is no certain future for the things of this world pass from us we pass from them the world it self passes away to nothing Yet a way we have found to make a treasure a treasure of sin and we teach God thrift and providence for when we arm God arms too when we make a treasure God makes a treasure too a treasure furnished with Weapons of Displeasure for this World and Weapons of Indignation for the World to come But then As an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil so says our Saviour the good man out of the good treasure of his heart Luk. 6.45 bringeth forth that which is good Which is the last stroke that makes up Pythagoras his Symbolical Letter that Horn that Beam thereof which lies on the right hand a narrower way but to a better Land thorow Straights 't is true but to the Pacifique Sea The consideration of the treasure of the Godly Man in this VVorld and Gods treasure towards him both in this and the next Things dedicated to God are call'd often The treasures of God Thesaurus Bonorum 1 Chro. 28.12 Thesauri Dei and Thesauri sanctorum Dei the treasures of God and the treasures of the servants of God are in the Scriptures the same thing and so a man may rob Gods treasury in robbing an Hospital Now though to give a Talent or to give a Jewel or to give a considerable proportion of Plate be an addition to a treasury yet to give a treasury to a treasury is a more precious and a more acceptable present as to give a Library to a Library is more then to give the works of any one Author A godly man is a Library in himself a treasury in himself and therefore fittest to be dedicated and appropriated to God Invest thy self therefore with this treasure of Godliness VVhat is Godliness Take it in the whole compass thereof and Godliness is nothing but the fear of God for he that says in his first Chapter Prov. 1.7 Initium sapientiae The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom says also in the 22. Finis Modestiae The fear of God is the end of modesty 22.4 the end of humility No man is bound to direct himself to any lower humiliation then to the fear of God When God promised good Ezekias all those Blessings Isa 33.6 Wisdome and Knowledge and Stability and Strength of Salvation that that was to defray him and carry him through all was this The fear of the Lord shall be his treasure 1 Tim. 6.19 And therefore Thesaurizate vobis fundamentum Lay up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come Do all in the fear of God In all warlike preparations remember the Lord of Hosts and fear him In all Treaties of Peace remember the Prince of Peace and fear him In all Consultations remember the Angel of the great Council and fear him fear God as much at Noon as at Midnight as much in the Glory and Splendour of his Sun-shine as in his darkest Eclipses fear God as much in thy Prosperity as in thine Adversity as much in thy Preferment as in thy Disgrace Lay up a thousand pound to day in comforting that oppressed soul that sues and lay up ten thousand pound to morrow in paring his Nails that oppresses Lay up a million one day in taking Gods Cause to heart and lay up ten millions next day in taking Gods Cause in hand Let every soul lay up a peny now in resisting a small temptation and a shilling anon in resisting a greater and it will grow to be a treasure a treasure of Talents of so many Talents as that the poorest soul in the Congregation would not change treasure with any Plate-Fleet nor Terra-firma Fleet nor with those three thousand millions which though it be perchance a greater sum then is upon the face of Europe at this day after a hundred years embowelling of the earth for treasure David is said to have left for the treasure of the Temple Villalp Tom. 2. par 2. li. 5. Dip. 3. cap. 43. fol. 503. Phil. 3.20 Apoc. 21.2 onely to be laid up in the Treasury thereof when it was built for the charge of the building thereof was otherwise defray'd Let your Conversation be in heaven Cannot you get thither You may see as S. John did Heaven come down to you Heaven is here here in Gods Church in his Word in his Sacraments in his Ordinances set thy heart upon them The Promises of the Gospel The Seals of Reconciliation and thou hast that treasure which is thy Viaticum for thy Transmigration out of this VVorld and thy Bill of Exchange for the VVorld thou goest to For as the wicked make themselves a treasure of sin and vanity and then God opens upon them a treasure of his Displeasure here and his Indignation hereafter So the Godly make themselves a treasure of the fear of God and he opens unto them a treasure of Grace and Peace here and a treasure of Joy and Glory hereafter And when of each of these treasures Here and Hereafter I shall have said one word I have done Thesaurus Dei erga Bonos hîc 2 Cor. 4.7 We have treasure though in earthen Vessels says the Apostle We have that is We have already the treasure of Grace and Peace and Faith and Justification and Sanctification But yet in earthen Vessels in Vessels that may be broken Peace that may be interrupted Grace that may be resisted Faith that may be enfeebled Justification that may be suspected and Sanctification that may be blemished But we look for more for Joy and Glory for such a Justification and such a Sanctification as shall be seal'd and riveted in a
evil to have none if ye be without correction you are bastards and not sons Gods own and onely essential Son Christ Jesus suffered most and his adopted sons must fulfill his sufferings in their flesh we are born Gods sons and heirs in his purpose at first and we are declared to be so in our second birth of Baptisme but yet we are not come to years not come to a tryal how we can govern our selves till we suffer afflictions but then doth this affliction become evil when that which God intended for physick we turn into poyson when God hearkens after this affliction to hear what voice it produces and when he looks for repentance he hears a murmuring and repining when he bends down his ear for a Tibi peccavi he hears a Quare non mortuus Why dyed I not in my birth Iob. 3.11 Act. 7. Jam. 3.64 When he hearkens after a domine ne statuas Lord lay not this sin to their charge a prayer for our persecutors he hears a Redde eis vicem Give them a recompence O Lord according to their work Give them a sorrow of heart thy curse to them as it is there though there not by way of murmuring but by way of foresight and Prophesie that God would do so But to end this part then when the Rich man can make no good use of his affliction when he finds Nullam ansam no handle in it to take hold of God by when he can find no comfort in the next world he shall loose all here too And his Riches Those Riches which his labour hath made dear unto him shall not onely be taken from him and he put to his recovery but they shall perish and they shall perish in the midd'st of those labours which are evil and eat him up and macerate him And they shall perish in these afflictions which are evil too which shall not work nor conduce to his good We come now to the second part 2. Part. which respects more the future He begotteth a Son first that may seem to give him some ease every body desires it And secondly It may seem to give him some excuse of his gathering because having children he was bound to provide for them But such is Gods indignation for the getting of Riches with a confidence in them that he looses all all comfort in his Son all excuse in himself for in the hands of his Son shall be nothing First then for the having of children and the testimony of Gods love in that blessing this diminishes Nothing the honour due to the first chastity the chastity of virginity There is a chastity in Marriage But the chastity of virginity is the proper and principal chastity Barcenus amongst the Iews was an ignominious thing but it was considered onely in them which did marry and were barren God hath given us Marriage for Physick but it is an unwholsom wantonness to take Physick before we need it Marriage In Gods institution at first had but two ends In prolem and in adjutorium After man was fallen sick then another was added In remedium Marriage is properly according to Gods institution when all these concurr where none do it is scarce a Marriage When we have taken the Physick yet we are not come to the state of strength and health which is intended in Marriage Psal 12.7.3 till we have Children to be the staff of our age Behold Children are the inheritance of the Lord and the fruit of the womb his reward He gives Marriage for Physick but Children are a reall blessing in it self and reserved to him And therefore when God hath given us that use of Marriage we are married he is at an end of his Physick he doth not appoint us to take Physick again for children he does not forbid us to take phisick to preserve our bodyes in a good and healthy costitution but drugs and broths and baths purposely for children come not out of his shop they are not his ingredienâ—s It is his own work the gift of children And therefore when Rachel came to say to Jacob Gen. 30.1 Give me children or else I die Jacobs anger was kindled against her Anne ego pro Deo Am I a God to do this And therefore it is not inconveniently noted that as the first man Cain was called Acquisitus a domino he was possessed from the Lord so after so very many names in the Scriptures held that way of testifying the guift to come from God that as Samuel wich is postulatus a deo so all the names that have that termination El have such a signification in them And so in the declining of the Jews state Matheus is Domini Dei and Johanes is gratia Dei and in the beginning of the Christian Church every where they abounded with Deo date Deus dedit quod vult Deus and such names as were acknowledgments that children were the immediate gift of God Gen. 15.1 And therefore when God said to Abraham I will be thine exceeding great reward and Abraham said O Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I am childlesse God comes to particulars with him first in that that he would give him children And therefore as to all men so to this rich man in our text it may be naturally admitted for a comfort that he had a Son Now as it was a just comfort to have children so it was a just excuse 1. Tim. 5.8 a just encouragement to provide for them If there be any that provideth not for his own he denieth the faith that is in his actions and works of faith and he is worse then an Infidel for Infidels do provide for their own Christianismi famam negligit Chrysost he betraies the honour and dignity of the Christian Religion if he neglect his children and he hath opened a large gate of Scandal to the Gentils And therefore saith St. Augustin quicunque vult Whosoever will disinherit his Sons Augu. though it be upon pretext of doing good service by building or endowing a Church or making the Church his heir Quaerat alterum qui suscipiat non Augustinum Immo deo propitio neminem inveniet Let him find another that will accept his offer for Augustin will not nor by Gods grace any other Hier. epist 47. The tye the obligation of providing for our Children binds us strictly for it is secunda post Deum faederatio next to the band of Religion next to our service to God our first duty is to provide for them Chrysost But yet Dic obsecro cum liberos a Deo petiisti when thou did'st pray to God to give thee Children did'st thou add this clause to thy prayer Da liberos give me Children that I may thereby have an excuse of my covetousness of my breach of thy Commandement of my prophaning thy Sabaths of my usuâ—y of my perjury was this in thy prayer saith he If it were the Childe shall surely dye
providence any care of particular actions those which doubt whether the history of Christ be true or no those doubting men that conform themselves outwardly with us because that may be true that we profess for any thing they know there may be a Christ they might be the worse for any thing they know if they left him out they might prove worse and in the mean time they enjoy temporal peace benefit of the Laws by this outward profession of theirs those men that sacrifice to Christ Jesus onely ne noceat least if there be such a God they should lose him for want of a sacrifice that worship Christ Jesus with a reservation of the pretended God that if he prove God at last they have done their part if he do not yet they are never the worse these men who if they come to Church think themselves safe enough but they are deceived The Militant and the Triumphant Church is all one Church but above in the triumphant Church there are other Church-wardens than here though he come to do the outward acts of religion if he do it without a religious heart they know him to be a Recusant for all his coming to Church here he shall be excommunicate in the triumphant there He praises not God he prays not to God he worships him not whatsoever he does if he have not considered it debated it concluded it to be rightly done and necessarily done If he think any thing else better done this is not well done Jacob had concluded it out of the contemplation of his former and present state Exul first he had been banished from his Countrey I came over Jordan Herein he was a figure of Christ he received a blessing â—rom his father and presently he must go into banishment Christ received presents and adoration from the Magi of the east and presently he submits himself to a banishment in Egypt for the danger that Herod intended Christs Banishment as it could not be less then four years so it could not be more then seven Jacobs was twenty a banishment and a long banishment Banishment is the first punishment executed upon man he was banished out of Paradise and it is the last punishment that we shall be redeemed from when we shall be received intirely body and soul into our Countrey into heaven It is true our life in this world is not called a banishment any where in the Scripture but a pilgrimage a peregrination a travell but peregrinatio cum ignominia conjunctu exilium he that leaves his Countrey because he was ashamed or afraid to return to it or to stay in it is a banished man Briefly for Jacobs case here S. Bernard expresses it well in his own est commune exilium there is one banishment common to us all in corpore peregrinamur a duo we travell out of our Countrey at least but Accessit speciale quod me pene inpatientem reddit quod cogarvicere sine vohis This was a particular misery in his banishment that Jacob must live from his father and mother and from that Country where he was to have the fruits and effects of that blessing which he had got He came away then and he came away poor Baculus in baculo with a staff God expresses sometimes abundance and strength in baculo in that word Oftentimes he calls plenty by that name the staff of bread But Jacobs is no Metaphorical staff it is a real staff the companion and the support of a poor travelling man When Christ enjoyns his Apostles to an exact poverty for one journey which they were to dispatch quickly S. Matthew expresses his commandment thus possess no monies nor two coats nor a shoe nor a staff S. Mark expresses the same commandment thus take none of those with you except a staff onely The fathers go about to reconcile this by taking staff in both places figuratively that the staff forbidden in Matthew should be potestas puniendi the power of correcting which the Apostle speaks of Num quid vultis vemam in virga 1 Cor. 4.21 shall I come to you with a rod or in love And that the staff allowed in Mark is potestas consolandi Psal 25.4 the power of comforting which David speaks of Virga tua baculus tuus ipsa me consolata sunt Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Christ spoke this but once but in his language the Syriack he spoke it in a word that hath two significations Shebat is both Baculus defensorius and Baculus sustentatorius A staff of sustentation and a staff of defence God that spoke in Christs Syriack spoke in the Evangelists Greek too and both belong to us and both the Evangelists intending the use of the staff and not the staff it self 3. Matthew in that word forbids any staff of violence or defence S. Mark allows a staff of sustentation and support and such a staff and no more had Jacob a staff to sustain him upon his way Hath this then been thy state with Jacob that thou hast not onely been without the staff of bread plenty and abundance of temporal blessings but without the staff of defence that when the world hath snarl'd and barked at thee and that thou wouldst justly have beaten a dog yet thou couldst not finde a staff thou hadst no means to right thy self yet he hath not left thee without a staff of support a staff to try how deep the waters be that thou art to wade through that is thy Christian constancy and thy Christian discretion use that staff aright and as Christ who sent his Apostles without any staff of defence once Luke 22.36 afterward gave them leave to carry swords so at his pleasure and in his measure he will make thy staff a sword by giving thee means to defend thy self and others over whom he will give thee charge and jurisdiction in exalting thee Suus But herein in doing so God assists thee with the staff of others with the favour and support of other men Jacob was first in Baculo and in suo nothing but a staff no staff but his own truly his own for we call other staffes ours Hos 4.12 which are not ours My people ask counsell of their stocks and their staff teacheth them that is they have made their own wisdom their own plots their own industry their staff upon which they should not relye so we trust to a broken staff of reed 2 Reg. 18.21 on which if a man lean it will go into his hand and peirce it when God hath given thee a staff of thine own a leading staff a competency a conveniency to lead thee through the difficulties and encombrances of this world if thou put a pike into thy staff murmuring at thine own envying superiours oppressing inferiours then this piked staff is not thy staff nor Gods staff but it is Baculus inimici hominis and the envious man in the Gospel is
vow is included all the service that he could exhibite or retribute to God Now his staffe is become a sword a strong Army his one staff now is multiplyed his wives are given for staffes to assist him and his children given also for staffes to his age His own staffe is become the greatest and best part of Labans wealth In such plenty as that he could spare a present to Esau of at least five hundred head of cattell The fathers make Morall expositions of this That his two bands are his Temporall blessings and his spirituall And St. Augustin findes a tipicall allusion in it of Christ Aug. Baculo Crucis Christus apprehendit mundum cum duabus turmis duobus populis ad patrem rediit Christ by his staffe his Cross muster'd two bands that is Jews and Gentiles We finde enough for our purpose in taking it literally as we see it in the Text That he divided all his company and all his cattell into two troups that if Esau come and smite one the other might scape For then onely is a fortune full when there is somthing for Leakage for wast when a Man though he may justly fear that this shall be taken from him yet he may justly presume that this shall be left to him though he lose much yet he shall have enough And this was Jacobs increase and height and from this lowness from one staff to two bands And therefore since in God we can consider but one state Semper idem immutable since in the Devil we can consider but two states Quomodo cecidit filius Orientis that he was the son of the Morning but is and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death since in Jacob and in our selves we can consider first that God made man righteous secondly that man betooke himself to his one staff and his own staff The imaginations of his own heart Thirdly That by the word of God manifested by his Angels he returns with two bands Body and Soul to his heavenly father againe let us attribute all to his goodness and confesse to him and the world That we are not worthy of the least of all his Mercies and of all the Truth which he hath shewed unto his Servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two bands A SERMON Preached at White-hall Serm. 13. April 19. 1618. SERMON XIII 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of which I am the chiefest THE greatest part of the body of the old-Testament is Prophecy and that is especially of future things The greatest part of the new-Testament if wee number the peeces is Epistles Relations of things past for instruction of the present They erre not much that call the whol new-Testament Epistle For even the Gospells are Evangelia good Messages and that 's proper to an Epistle and the booke of the Acts of the Apostles is superscrib'd by Saint Luke to one Person to Theophilus and that 's proper to an Epistle and so is the last booke the booke of Revelation to the severall Churches and of the rest there is no question An Epistle is collucutio scripta saies Saint Ambrose Though it be written far off and sent yet it is a Conference and seperatos copulat sayes hee by this meanes wee overcome distances we deceive absences and wee are together even then when wee are asunder And therefore in this kinde of conveying spirituall comfort to their friends have the ancient Fathers been more exercised then in any other former almost all of them have written Epistles One of them Isidorus him whom wee call Peluciotes Saint Chrysostom's schollar is noted to have written Myriades Nicephor and in those Epistles to have interpreted the whole Scriptures St. Paul gave them the example he writ nothing but in this kind and in this exceeded all his fellow Apostles pateretur Paulus quod Saulus seceret saies St. Austin That as he had asked Letters of Commission of the State to persecute Christians so by these Letters of Consolation hee might recompence that Church againe which hee had so much damnified before As the Hebrew Rabbins say That Rahab did let down Jofuah's spies out of her house with the same cord with which she had used formerly to draw up her adultrous lovers into her house Now the holy-Ghost was in all the Authors of all the books of the Bible but in Saint Paul's Epistles there is sayes Irenaeus Impetus Spiritus Sancti The vehemence the force of the holy-Ghost And as that vehemence is in all his Epistles so amplius habent quae e vinculis as Saint Chrysostome makes the observation Those Epistles which were written in Prison have most of this holy vehemence and this as that Father notes also is one of them And of all them we may justly conceive this to be the most vehement and forcible in which he undertakes to instruct a Bishop in his Episcopall function which is to propagate the Gospell for he is but an ill Bishop that leaves Christ where he found him in whose time the Gospell is yet no farther then it was how much worse is he in whose time the Gospell loses ground who leaves not the Gospell in so good state as he found it Now of this Gospell here recommended by Paul to Timothie this is the Summe That Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners c. Division Here then we shall have these three Parts First Radicem The Roote of the Gospell from whence it springs it is fidelis sermo a faithfull Word which cannot erre And secondly we have Arborem Corpus the Tree the Body the substance of the Gospell That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners And then lastly fructum Evangelii the fruit of the Gospell Humility that it brings them who embrace it to acknowledg themselves to be the greatest sinners And in the first of these the Roote it selfe wee shall passe by these steps First that it is Sermo the Word That the Gospell hath as good a ground as the Law the new-Testament as well founded as the Old It is the word of God And then it is fidelis Sermo a faithfull Word now both Old and New are so and equally so but in this the Gospell is fidelior the more faithfull and the more sure because that word the Law hath had a determination an expiration but the Gospell shall never have that And againe It is Sermo omni acceptatione dignus Worthy of all acceptation not only worthy to bee received by our Faith but even by our Reason too our Reason cannot hold out against the proofes of Christians for their Gospell And as the word imports it deserves omnem acceptationem and omnem approbationem all approbation and therefore as wee should not dispute against it and so are bound to accept it to receive it not to
future for the things of this world pass from us we pass from them the world it self passes away to nothing Yet a way wee have found to make a treasure a treasure of sin and we teach God thrift and providence for when we arme God arms too a treasure furnished with weapons of displeasure for this world and weapons of indignation for the world to come But then Luc. 6.45 as an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil so saies our Saviour the good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good which is the last stroke that makes up Pithagoras his Symbolical letter that horn that beam thereof which lies on the right hand a narrow way but to a better land through straights T is true but to the Pacifique sea the consideration of the treasure of the godly man in this world and Gods treasure towards him both in this and the next Things dedicated to God are called often the treasure of God Thesauri Dei and Thesauri sanctorum Dei Thesaur bonorum The treasure of God and the treasures of the servants of God are in the Scriptures the same things and so a man may rob Gods treasury in robbing an Hospital 1 Cor. 28.12 Now though to give a Talent or to give a Jewel or to give a considerable proportion of plate be an addition to a treasury yet to give a treasury to a treasury is a more pretious and a more acceptable present as to give a library to a library is more then to give the work of any one Author A godly man is a library in himself a treasury in himself and therefore fittest to be dedicated and appropriated to God Invest thy self therefore with this treasure of godliness what is godliness take it in the whole compass thereof and godliness is nothing but the fear of God Pro. 1.7 for he that saies in his first Chapter Initium sapientiae The fear of God is the beginning of wisdome 22.4 saies also in the 22th Finis modestiae The fear of God is the end of modesty the end of humility no man is bound to deject himself to any lower humiliation then to the fear of God When God promised good Ezekiah all those blessings Esay 33.6 wisdome and knowledg and stability and strength of salvation that that was to defray him and carry him through all 1 Tim. 6.19 was this The fear of the Lord shall be his treasure And therefore Thesaurizate vobis fundamentum Lay up in store for your selves a good foundation against the time to come do all in the fear of God in all warlike preparations remember the Lord of Hosts and fear him in all treaties of peace remember the Prince of peace and fear him in all consultations remember the Angel of the great counsel and fear him fear God as much at noon as at midnight as much in the glory and splendor of his Sun-shine as in his darkest Eclipses fear God as much in thy prosperity as in thine adversity as much in thy preferment as in thy disgrace Lay up a thousand pound to day in comforting that oppressed soul that sues and lay up ten thousand pound to morrow in pairing his nails that oppresses lay up a million one day in taking Gods cause to heart and lay up ten millions next day in taking Gods cause in hand Let every soul lay up a penny now in resisting a small tentation and a shilling anon in resisting a greater and it will grow to be a treasure a treasure of talents of so many talents as that the poorest soul in the congregation will not change treasure with any Place-Fleets nor Terra firma fleet nor with those three thousand millions which though it be perchance a greater sum then is upon the face of Europe at this day after a hundred years embowelling of the earth for treasure David is said to have left for the treasure of the Temple Villalp To. 2. par li. 5. Disp 3. cap. 43. so 503. Phil. 3.20 Apoc. 21.2 only to be laid up in the treasury thereof when it was built for the charge of the building thereof was otherwise defraid Let your conversation be in heaven cannot you get thither you may see as St. John did heaven come down to you heaven is here here in Gods Church in his word in his Sacraments in his Ordinances set thy heart upon them the promises of the Gospel the seals of reconciliation and thou hast that treasure which is thy viaticum for thy transmigration out of this world and the bill of exchange for the world thou goest to for as the wicked make themselves a treasure of sin and vanity and then God opens upon them a treasure of his displeasure here and his indignation hereafter so the godly make themselves a treasure of the fear of God and he opens unto them a treasure of grace and peace here and a treasure of joy and glory hereafter And when of each of these treasures here and hereafter I shall have said one word I have done We have treasure though in earthen vessels saies the Apostle Thesaurus Dei Erga bonos hic 2 Cor 4.7 we have that is we have already the treasure of grace and peace and faith and justification and sanctification but yet in earthen vessels in vessels that may be broken peace that may be interrupted grace that may be resisted faith that may be enfeebled justification that may be suspected and sanctification that may be blemished but we look for more for joy and glory for such a justification and such a sanctification as shall be seald and riveted in a glorification Manna putrified if it were kept by any man but a day but in the Ark it never putrified That treasure which is as Manna from heaven grace and peace yet here hath a brackish taste when grace and peace shall become joy and glory in heaven there it will be sincere Sordescit quod inferiori miscetur nature August si in suo genere non sordidetur though in the nature thereof that with which a purer mettle is mixt be not base yet it abases the purer mettle he puts his example in silver and gold though silver be a pretious mettle yet it abases gold grace and peace and faith are pretious parts of our treasure here yet if we mingle them that is compare them with the joyes and glory of heaven if we come to think that our grace and peace and faith here can no more be lost then our joy and glory there we abase and we over-allay those joys and that glory The Kingdome of heaven is like to a treasure saies our Saviour Mar. 13.44 but is it all is any treasure like unto it none for to end where we begun treasure is depositum in crastinum provision for to morrow the treasure of the worldly man is not so he
kindled Num. 11.15 there and only their doth Moses attribute even to God himself the feminine sex and speaks to God in the original language as if he should have call'd him Deam Iratam an angry she God all that is good then either in the love of man or woman is in this love for he is expressed in both sexes man and woman and all that can be ill in the love of either sex is purged away for the man is no other man then Christ Jesus and the woman no other woman then wisdom her self even the uncreated wisdom of God himself Now all this is but one person the person that professes love who is the other who is the beloved of Christ is not so easily discern'd in the love between persons in this world and of this world we are often deceived with outward signs we often mis-call and mis-judg civil respects and mutual courtesies and a delight in one anothers conversation and such other indifferent things as only malignity and curiosity and self-guiltiness makes to be misinterpretable we often call these love but neither amongst our selves much less between Christ and our selves are these outward appearances alwaies signs of love This person then this beloved soul is not every one to whom Christ sends a loving message or writs too for his letters his Scriptures are directed to all not every one he wishes well to and swears that he does so for so he doth to all As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a Sinner not every one that he sends jewels and presents to for they are often snares to corrupt as well as arguments of love not though he admit them to his table and supper for even there the Devil entred into Judas with a sop not though he receive them to a kiss for even with that familarity Judas betrayed him not though he betroth himself as he did to the Jews Osc 2.14 sponsabo te mihi in aeternum not though he make jointures in pacto salis in a covenant of salt an everlasting covenant not though he have communicated his name to them which is an act of marriage for to how many hath he said ego dixit Dii estis I have said you are Gods and yet they have been reprobates not all these outward things amount so far as to make us discern who is this beloved person for himself saies of the Israelites to whom he had made all these demonstrations of love yet after for their abominations devorc'd himself from them I have forsaken mine house Jer. 12.7 I have left mine own heritage I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies To conclude this person beloved of Christ is only that soul that loves Christ but that belongs to the third branch of this first part which is the mutual love The Affection but first having found the person we are to consider the affection it self the love of this text it is an observation of Origens that though these three words Amor Dilectio and Charitas love and affection and good will be all of one signification in the sctiptures yet saies he wheresoever there is danger of representing to the fancy a lascivious and carnal love the scripture forbears the word love and uses either affection or good will and where there is no such danger the scripture comes directly to this word love of which Origens examples are that when Isaac bent his affections upon Rebecca and Jacob upon Rachel in both places it is dilexit and not amavit Cant 5.8 and when it is said in the Cant. I charge you Daughters of Jerusalem to tell my well-beloved it is not to tel him that she was in love but to tell him quod vulneratae charitatis sum that I am wounded with an affection good will towards him but in this book of Pro. in all the passages between Christ and the beloved soul there is evermore a free use of this word Amor love because it is even in the first apprehension a pure a chast and an undefiled love Eloquia Dominis casta sayes David All the words of the Lord and all their words that love the Lord all discourses all that is spoken to or from the soul is all full of chast love and of the love of chastity Now though this love of Christ to our souls be too large to shut up or comprehend in any definition yet if we content our selves with the definition of the Schools Amare est velle alicui quod bonum est love is nothing but a desire that they whom we love should be happy we may easily discern the advantage and profit which we have by this love in the Text when he that wishes us this good by loving us is author of all good himself and may give us as much as pleases him without impairing his own infinite treasure He loves us as his ancient inheritance as the first amongst his creatures in the creation of the world which he created for us He loves us more as his purchase whom he hath bought with his blood for even man takes most pleasure in things of his own getting But he loves us most for our improvement when by his ploughing up of our hearts and the dew of his grace and the seed of his word we come to give greaâ—â—r cent in the fruit of sanctification than before And since he loves â—s thus and that in him this love is velle bonum a desire that his beloved should be happy what soul amongst us shall doubt that when God hath such an abundant and infinite treasure as the merit and passion of Christ Jesus sufficient to save millions of worlds and yet many millions in this world all the heathen excluded from any interest therein when God hath a kingdome so large as that nothing limits it and yet he hath banished many natural subjects thereof even those legions of Angels which were created in it and are fallen from it what soul amongst us shall doubt but that he that hath thus much and loves thus much will not deny her a portion in the blood of Christ or a room in the kingdome of heaven No soul can doubt it except it have been a witness to it self and be so still that it love not Christ Jesus for that 's a condition necessary And that is the third branch to which we are come now in our order that this love be mutuall I love them c. If any man loves not our Lord Jesus let him be accursed Mutual saies the Apostle Now the first part of this curse is upon the indisposition to love he that loves not at all is first accursed That stupid inconsideration which passes on drowsilie and negligently upon Gods creatures that sullen indifferency in ones disposition to love one thing no more than another not to value not to chuse not to prefer that stoniness that in humanity not to be
which must save our Soules is not confined to Cloysters and Monasteries and speculative men only but is all so evidently and eminently to be found in the Courts of religious Princes in the tops of high places and in the Courts of Justice in the gates of the City Both these kinds of Courts may have more directions from him then other places but yet in these places hee is also gloriously and conspicuously to be found for wheresoever he is he cries aloud as the Text saies there and he utters his voyce Now Temptations to sin are all but whisperings we are afraid that a husband that a father that a competitor that a rivall a pretender at least the Magistrate may heare of it Tentations to sin are all but whisperings private Conventicles and clandestine worshipping of God in a forbidden manner in corners are all but whisperings It is not the voice of Christ except thou hear him cry aloud and utter his voice so as thou maist confidently doe whatsoever he commands thee in the eye of all the world he is every where to be found he calls upon thee every where but yet there belongs a diligence on thy part thou must seek him Quaerere Esaias is hold saith St. Paul and saies I was found of them that sought me not when that Prophet derives the love of God to â—he Gentiles who could seeke God no where but in the booke of Creatures and were destitute of all other lights to seek him by and yet God was found by them Esaias is bold cries the Apostle that is It was a great degree of confidence in Esaias to say That God was found of them that sought him not Rom. 10.20 It was a boldness and confidence which no particular man may have that Christ will be found except he be sought he gives us light to seek him by but he is not found till we have sought him It is true that in that Commandement of his Primum quaerite Regnum Dei First seek the Kingdom of God the primum is not to prevent God that we should seek it before he shewes it that 's impossible without the light of Grace we dwell in darknesse and in the shadow of death but the primum is That we should seek it before we seek any thing else that when the Sun of Grace is risen to us the first thing that we do be to seek Christ Jesus Amos 5.4 Querite me vivetis Seek me and ye shall live why we were alive before else we could not seek him but it is a promise of another life of an eternall life if we seek him and seek him early which is our last consideration The word there used for early signifies properly Auroram Early the Morning and is usually transfer'd in Scriptures to any beginning of any action so in particular Evill shall come upon thee Esay 47.11 and thou shalt not know Shakrah the morning the beginning of it And therefore this Text is elegantly translated by one Aurorantes ad me They that have their break of day towards me they that send forth their first morning beames towards me their first thoughts they shall be sure to find me St. Hierom expresses this early diligence required in us well in his translation qui mane vigilaverint They that wake betimes in the morning shall finde me but the Chaldee Paraphrase better qui mane consurgunt they that rise betimes in the morning shall finde me for which of us doth not know that we wak'd long agoe that we saw day and had heretofore some motions to find Christ Jesus But though we were awake wee have kept our bed still we have continued still in our former sins so that there is more to be done then waking we see the Spouse her self saies In my bed by night Cant. 3.1 I sought him whom my Soule lov'd but I found him not Christ may be sought in the bed and missed other thoughts may exclude him and he may bee sought there and found we may have good meditations there and Christ may be neerer us when we are asleep in our beds then when when we are awake But howsoever the bed is not his ordinary station he may be and he saies he will be at the making of the bed of the sick but not at the marriage of the bed of the wanton and licentious To make haste the circumstance only requir'd here is that he be sought early and to invite thee to it consider how early he sought thee It is a great mercy that he staies so long for thee It was more to seek thee so early Dost thou not feele that he seeks thee now in offering his love and desiring thine Canst not thou remember that he sought thee yesterday that is that some tentations besieged thee then and he sought thee out by his Grace and preserved thee and hath he not sought thee so so early as from the beginning of thy life nay dost thou not remember that after thou hadst committed that sin he sought thee by imprinting some remorse some apprehension of his judgments and so miro divino modo quando te oderat diligebat Grego by a miraculous and powerful working of his Spirit he threatned thee when he comforted thee he lov'd thee when he chid thee he sought thee wen he drove thee from him He hath sought thee amongst the infinite numbers of false and fashionall Christians that he might bring thee out from the hypocrite to serve him in earnest and in holyness and in righteousness he sought thee before that amongst the Herd of the nations Gentiles who had no Church to bring thee into his inclosures and pastures his visible Church and to feed thee with his word and sacraments he sought thee before that in the catalogue of all his Creatures where he might have left thee a stone or a plant or a beast and then he gave thee an immortal Soul capable of all his future blessings yea before this he sought thee when thou wast no where nothing he brought thee then the greatest step of all from being nothing to be a Creature how early did he seek thee when he sought thee in Adam's confused loynes out of that leavened and sowre loaf in which we were all kneaded up out of that massa damnata that refuse condemnable lump of dough he sought and sever'd out that grain which thou shouldst be yea millions of millions of generations before al this he sought thee in his own eternal Decree And in that first Scripture of his which is as old as himself in the book of life he wrote thy name in the blood of that Lamb which was slain for thee not only from the beginning of this world but from the writing of that eternal Decree of thy Salvation Thus early had he sought thee in the Church amongst hypocrites out of the Church amongst the Heathen In his Creatures amongst creatures of an ignoble nature and
God and live in his fear to be mercinarij per laborem to be the workmen of God and labour in his Vineyard to be filij per lavacrum to be the sons of God and preserve that Inheritance which was sealed to us at first in Baptism and last of all Amici per virtutem by the good use of his gifts the King of Kings shall be our friend That which he said to his Apostles his Spirit shall say to our spirit here and seal it to us for a Covenant of Salt an everlasting John 15.14 an irrevocable Covenant Henceforth call I you not servants but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father have I made known unto you And the fruition of this friendship which neither slackens in all our life nor ends at our death the Lord of Life for the death of his most innocent Son afford to us all Amen A Serm. 25. SERMON Preached at the SPITTLE Vpon Easter-Munday 1662. SERMON XXV 2 Cor. 4.6 For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ THe first Book of the Bible begins with the beginning In principio says Moses in Genesis In the beginning God created heaven and earth and can there be any thing prius principio before the beginning Before this beginning there is The last Book of the Bible in the order as they were written the Gospel of St. John begins with the same word too In principio says St. John In the beginning was the Word and here Novissimum primum the last beginning is the first St. John's beginning before Moses Moses speaking but of the Creature and St. John of the Creator and of the Creator before he took that name before he came to the act of Creation as the Word was with God and was God from all Eternity Our present Text is an Epitome of both those beginnings of the first beginning the Creation when God commanded light to shine out of darkness and of the other beginning which is indeed the first of Him in whose face we shall have the knowledge of the glory of God Christ Jesus The first Book of the Bible is a Revelation and so is the last in the order as they stand a Revelation too To declare a production of all things out of nothing which is Moses his work that when I do not know and care not whether I know or no what so contemptible a Creature as an Ant is made of but yet would fain know what so vast and so considerable a thing as an Elephant is made of I care not for a mustard seed but I would fain know what a Cedar is made of I can leave out the consideration of the whole Earth but would be glad to know what the Heavens and the glorious bodies in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars are made of I shall have but one answer from Moses for all that all my Elephants and Cedars and the Heavens that I consider were made of nothing that a Cloud is as nobly born as the Sun in the Heavens and a begger as nobly as the King upon Earth if we consider the great Grand-father of them all to be nothing to produce light of darkness thus is a Revelation a Manifestation of that which till then was not this Moses does St. John's is a Revelation too a Manifestation of that state which shall be and be for ever after all those which were produced of nothing shall be return'd and ressolv'd to nothing again the glorious state of the everlasting Jerusalem the Kingdom of Heaven Now this Text is a Revelation of both these Revelations the first state that which Moses reveals was too dark for man to see for it was nothing The other that which St. John reveals is too bright too dazling for man to look upon for it is no one limited determined Object but all at once glory and the seat and fountain of all glory the face of Christ Jesus The Holy Ghost hath shewed us both these severally in Moses and in St. John and both together in St. Paul in this Text where as the Sun stands in the midst of the Heavens and shews us both the Creatures that are below it upon Earth and the Creatures that are above it the Stars in Heaven so St. Paul as he is made an Apostle of the Gentiles stands in the midst of this Text God hath shin'd in our hearts Ours as we are Apostolical Ministers of the Gospel and he shows us the greatness of God in the Creation which was before when God commanded light out of darkness and the goodness of God which shall be hereafter when he shall give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus So that this Text giving light by which we see light commanded by God out of darkness and the Object which we are to see the knowledge of the glory of God and this Object being brought within a convenient distance to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ And a fit and well-disposed Medium being illumin'd through which we may see it God having shin'd in our hearts established a Ministry of the Gospel for that purpose if you bring but eyes to that which this Text brings Light and Object and Distance and Means then as St. Basil said of the Book of Psalms upon an impossible supposition If all the other Books of Scripture could perish there were enough in that one for the catechising of all that did believe and for the convincing of all that did not so if all the other Writings of St. Paul could perish this Text were enough to carry us through the body of Divinity from the Cradle of the world in the Creation when God commanded light out of darkness to the Grave and beyond the Grave of the world to the last Dissolution and beyond it when we shall have fully the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus Now whilst I am to speak of all this this which is Omne scibile all and more then can fall within the comprehension of a natural man for it is the beginning of this world and it is the way to the next and it is the next world it self I comfort my self at my first setting out with that of St. Gregory Purgatas aures hominum gratiam nancisci nonne Dei donum est I take it for one of Gods great blessings to me if he have given me now an Auditory Purgatae auris of such spiritual and circumcised Ears as come not to hear that Wisdom of Words which may make the Cross of Christ of none effect much less such itching Ears as come to hear popular and seditious Calumnies and Scandals and Reproaches cast upon the present State and Government For a man may make a Sermon a Satyr he
VVord of Life hath pour'd in this water into that great and Royal Vessel the Understanding and the love of his truth into the large and religious heart of our Soveraign and he pours it out in 100 in 1000 spouts in a more plentiful preaching thereof then ever your Fathers had it in both the ways of plenty plentiful in the frequency plentiful in the learned manner of preaching Illuxit he hath shin'd upon you before you were born in the Covenant in making you the Children of the seed of Abraham of Christian Parents Illuxit he hath shin'd upon you ever since you could hear and see had any exercise of natural and supernatural faculties and Illuxit by his grace who sends treasure in earthen vessels he hath shin'd upon some of you since you came hither now Consider onely now after all this shining that a Candle is as soon blown out at an open door or an open window as in the open street If you open a door to a Supplanter an Underminer a Whisperer against your Religion if there be a broken window a woman loaden with sin as the Apostle speaks and thereby dejected into an inordinate melancholy for such a melancholy as make Witches makes Papists too if she be thereby as apt to change Religions now as Loves before and as weary of this God as of that man if there be such a door such a window a wife a child a friend a sojourner bending that way this light that hath shin'd upon thee may as absolutely go out in thy house and in thy heart as if it were put out in the whole Kingdom Leave the publick to him whose care the publick is and who no doubt prepares a good account to him to whom onely he is accountable Look then to thine own heart and thine own house for that 's thy charge And so we have done with the action shining evidence and with the time Illuxit there is enough done already and we come to the place in Corde if God shine he shines in the heart Fecit Deus Coelum terram Non lego quod requieverit In Cordibus St. Ambros says that Father God made heaven and earth but I do not read that he tested when he had done that Fecit Solem Lunam as he pursues that Meditation He made the Sun and Moon and all the host of heaven but yet he rested not Fecit hominem Requievit When God had made man then he rested for when God had made man he had made his bed the heart of man to rest in God asks nothing of man but his heart and nothing but man can give the heart to God Gen. 8.21 And therefore in that sacrifice of Noah after the flood and often in the Scriptures elsewhere sacrifice is called Odor quietis God smelt a savour of rest in that which proceeds from a religious heart God rests himself and is well pleased Loqui ad Cor Jerusalem to speak to the heart of Jerusalem is ever the Scripture phrase from God to man to speak comfortably and loquiâ—e Corde to speak from the heart is an Emphatical phrase from man to God too He that speaks from his own heart speaks to Gods heart Did not our hearts burn within us while he opened the Scriptures say those two Disciples that went with Christ to Emaus And if your hearts do not so all this while you hear but me Luc. 24.32 and alas who or what am I you hear not God But let this light the love of the ordinary means of your salvation enter into your hearts and shine there and then as the fire in your Chymney grows pale and faints and out of countenance when the Sun shines upon it so whatsoever fires of lust of anger of ambition possessed that heart before it will yeild to this and evaporate But why do I speak all this to others Is it so clear a case that the hearts in this Text are the hearts of others of them that hear and not of our selves that speak That we are to see now for that 's the next and last Branch in this part who be the persons in Cordibus nostris in our hearts Nostris Certainly this word Nostris primarily most literally most directly concerns us Us the Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments If we take Gods Word into our mouths and pretend a Commission a Calling for the calling of others we must be sure that God hath shin'd in our hearts There is vocatio intentionalis an intentional Calling when Parents in their intention and purpose dedicates their children to this service of God the Ministry even in their Cradle And this is a good and holy intention because though it bind not in the nature of a Vow yet it makes them all the way more careful to give them such an Education as may fit them for that profession And then there is Vocatio Virtualis when having assented to that purpose of my Parents I receive that publick Seal the Imposition of hands in the Church of God but it is Vocatio radicalis the calling that is the root and foundation of all that we have this light shining in our hearts the testimony of Gods Spirit to our spirit that we have this calling from above First then it must be a light not a calling taken out of the darkness of melancholy or darkness of discontent or darkness of want and poverty or darkness of a retir'd life to avoid the mutual duties and offices of society it must be a light and a light that shines it is not enough to have knowledge and learning it must shine out and appear in preaching and it must shine in our hearts in the private testimony of the Spirit there but when it hath so shin'd there it must not go out there but shine still as a Candle in a Candlestick or the Sun in his sphere shine so as it give light to others so that this light doth not shine in our hearts except it appear in the tongue and in the hand too First in the tounge to preach opportune and importune in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4.2 August that is opportune Volentibus importune Nolentibus preaching is in season to them who are willing to hear but though they be not though they had rather the Laws would permit them to be absent or that preaching were given over yet I must preach And in that sense I may use the words of the Apostle As much as in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel to them also that are at Rome at Rome in their hearts at Rome that is of Rome Rom. 1.15 reconciled to Rome I would preach to them if they would have me if they would hear me and that were opportune in season But though we preach importune out of season to their ends and their purposes yet we must preach though they would not have it done for we are debters to all because all are